Miranda House atop in HRD rankings; followed with St Stephen, IIT-Delhi

Six colleges of the Delhi University have figured in the top 10 rankings by the HRD Ministry, with Miranda House scoring a hattrick in bagging the first rank. While Hindu College has been ranked second; St Stephens college, Lady Sri Ram College for Women, Shri Ram College of Commerce and Hansraj College have bagged the fourth, fifth, seventh and ninth ranks respectively. Besides these, 22 more DU colleges have figured in the list of top 100 colleges in the country.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, has been ranked third in the overall ranking of higher education institutions and the second best among the engineering institutions. The prestigious institute has bagged the ninth position among the management institutions. The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), which has bagged the seventh rank in the overall category, has been ranked as the second best university. The Jamia Millia Islamia and the Delhi University have bagged 12th and 13th ranks respectively.

Jamia Hamdard has been adjudged as the best varsity for pharmacy education and ranked 18 among universities. The Delhi Technological University and Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University have been ranked at 47 and 66 positions respectively. Bijayalaxmi Nanda, the principal of Miranda House, told PTI, "It has been a hattrick for us. Our emphasis has been on innovation, research and teaching beyond classrooms".

"We have been persistent in our efforts and have been at it. Our infrastructure has grown a lot and there has been a lot of focus on mentoring. Our science blocks have been built and our labs are being equipped with new-age technologies," she said. IIT-Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao said he was happy that the institute improved its NIRF ranking by one more position this year and ranked second in Engineering.

"In the last two years, we have moved from the 4th position to the 2nd position. This is a reflection of the various measures we have taken to improve our outreach activities as well as the research ecosystem," he said. Hindu College's officiating principal Anju Srivastava said the college will soon come up with a research centre and a new building was under construction.

"We are encouraging our teachers and students to get into research," Srivastava said. JNU Vice-Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar tweeted, "A proud moment for all of us in the Golden Jubilee year. In the National Institutional Ranking Framework, JNU ranked 2 in the University category and 7 in the overall category. Congratulations to all the stakeholders. JNU continues to focus on achieving academic excellence."

Jamia Hamdard vice-chancellor Dr Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain said the varsity is trying to reinvent itself. It will soon start a programme in the performing arts and has started law courses and a course in catering management. Lauding the efforts by the HRD Ministry to bring in India's own ranking system, Suman Sharma, the principal of Lady Shri Ram College, the institute has applied to UGC for starting a Women Development Centre in the college.

"We are a liberal arts institute, unlike others where there is a lot of emphasis on science. We want to further strengthen it," Sharma said. The ranking framework instituted in 2016 evaluates institutions on five broad generic groups of parameters, including Teaching, Learning and Resources (TLR), Research and Professional Practice (RP), Graduation Outcomes (GO), Outreach and Inclusivity (OI) and Perception (PR).

A total of 3,127 institutions participated in the ranking process under overall rankings, category-specific and domain-specific ranking. In all, 4,867 applications for rankings were made by the 3,127 applicant institutions under various categories and domains.

(With inputs from agencies.)